Doing Your Creative Best

Who impresses you? Hopefully lots of people do. People who model the very best actions and deliver value in whatever sphere of influence or discipline they engage in often serve as actual or distant mentors and help us achieve our creative best.

In order to determine who impresses us, we must make a judgement. Sometimes our judgement is sound, other times it is deficient. When our judgement is a bit off when looking at others, it can be disappointing, but when looking at ourselves with deficient judgment, it can be disastrous.

We all need to improve our skills in making accurate evaluations or judgements about events, ourselves, others, and the world. In stressful situations, our ability to make accurate judgements is diminished. When functioning in a less than optimal way, or when impaired by internal or external factors, we often substitute our biases, preconceived notions, and false assumptions as a way to cope. Rather than becoming self-aware of deficient judgements so we can take responsibility for what we actually see and have evidence for, we settle for misjudgment in making an evaluation about the situation or person.

Planning to participate in a meeting? How we make sense of the world is a critical skill worth improving because it affects more than just ourselves. Since our judgements are not always right or helpful, we can repeatedly assess our internal resources and choose more positive and constructive attitudes so we are open to new data, receptive to new perspectives, and responsive to God's preferred future of hope and growth.

Sometimes we settle for believing we know what's going to happen in the future. Am I thinking that I can predict the future? How likely is it that that might really happen? Becoming aware of our own needs for approval or our misjudgment about others can impair the preferred outcomes for a meeting even before the meeting starts. Gaining clarity with reliable data can set the stage for true engagement and mutual growth.

Our history and experience affects our emotional reasoning, sometimes in adverse ways. We conclude that since I feel bad, it must be bad! I feel anxious, so I must be in danger. Just because it feels bad, doesn't necessarily mean it is bad. My feelings are just a reaction to my thoughts and thoughts are just automatic brain reflexes. Differentiating between real and imagined danger is essential to healthy living. Being more aware of our history and experience, dealing with it in a constructive manner, can free ourselves to being more invested in the moment and respect the situation or person in a more authentic way.

As you work you plan this September by planning your work, consider the advice of the Apostle Paul: "Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life" Galatians 6:4-5 (MSG).

What's your creative best? You are more likely to experience your creative best when you are fully aware of your own judgements and open to the preferred future God is impressing on you.